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One-hundred-sixteen years ofeditorialfreedom
www.michigandaily. com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
m Vol. CXVI, No. 114
o2006 The Michigan Daily
'U' takes in students
displaced by
Katrina
Administration has yet to locate
dozens of students from storm-
stricken areas of coast
September 6, 2005
By Michael Kan
Daily Staff Reporter
In response to the devastation left by Hurri-
cane Katrina, the University has begun admitting
displaced college students from disaster-stricken
universities while continuing to locate missing Uni-
versity students from areas hit by the hurricane.
Sue Eklund, the University dean of students,
said yesterday that of the 86 current University
students who are from the disaster-affected areas
- Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana - her
office has yet to hear back from 32 students.
"We have not heard of our students being seri-
ously injured or worse, though it's important to
note that some do have missing relatives, more
have missing friends," she said.
Eklund added that her office is using e-mail to
contact the missing students and offering to pay
for plane tickets for students unable to access their
bank accounts. She said the Office of Financial
Aid has also been assisting students financially
affected by the disaster on an individual basis.
While the University does not know the where-
abouts of 32 students, Eklund said many of those
students may have ignored her office's e-mails or
will only begin checking their University e-mail
accounts once school has started.
With some colleges effectively shut down from
the flooding, University officials said their offices
have been inundated with inquires from displaced
students hoping to attend the University.
Ted Spencer, director of undergraduate admis-
sions, said on Friday that his office has received
about 50 inquiries, 31 of which were from Tulane
University students. Tulane, a college of about
8,000 undergraduate students located in New
Orleans, canceled its fall semester on Friday.
The Office of Undergraduate Admissions has so far
admitted 12 as nondegree students, Spencer said, add-
ing that the office does not plan to limit the number of
displaced students who wish to attend the University.
"We are taking this one on a case-by-case basis,"
Spencer said. "There is no number associated with
this. Our primary concern is to help the students in
the area attending a university by helping them con-
tinue their education."
He also noted that the admissions office has in
some cases abided by an "honor system" for dis-
placed students that have never applied to the Uni-
versity and as a result undergraduate admissions
does not have their transcript information on hand.
But Spencer said his office does not anticipate any
future problems because the students who have been
admitted either applied to or were accepted by the
University but chose to attend a different college.
Spencer said he expects the inquiries to cease by
Sept. 9, when fall semester is underway.
The University's law school also announced on
Friday it would begin accepting displaced students,
with priority given to third-year law students and
to students with connections to the state or the
University. Sarah Zearfoss, director of admissions
at the Law School, said on Friday there would be
10 openings.
The Taubman College of Architecture and Urban
Planning also announced it would admit 15 dis-
placed architecture students. The Rackham Grad-
uate school has also begun accepting displaced
graduate students. The Michigan Daily could not
reach the other schools to obtain their admissions
policies regarding displaced students.
The University has yet to develop a tuition poli-
cy for the displaced students, said Kelly Cunning-
ham, a University spokeswoman.
"The University is working with others in the higher
education community to best figure that out," she said.
Spencer, the director of undergraduate admis-
sions, said he has found that many of the displaced
students have already paid tuition for their origi-
nal schools or that their parents currently have no
access to their bank accounts.
Despite its residence halls being over peak capac-
ity, the University is trying to secure on-campus
housing for the displaced students. Alan Levy,
spokesman for University Housing, said the office
has offered on-campus housing to at least two stu-
dents. Housing hopes to secure lodging for other dis-
placed students through off-campus housing groups
that have offered discounted rates, Levy said.
Carole Henry, assistant vice president of Univer-
sity affairs, said University staff members have also
aided incoming displaced students by providing
them with emergency funds to buy school supplies.
"There were staffers who literally went shopping with
(a) student and bought her the items she needed. We are
just doing whatever we can," Henry said.
Along with incoming students affected by the
hurricane, the University has also accepted one
faculty member, Prof. Steven Pierce, from Tulane
University's history department. Pierce will teach
history at the University beginning Sept. 21. Cun-
ningham said the University so far has no plans
to receive any more faculty members from other
universities affected by the hurricane.
ALE DZIADoSZ/Daily
Evacuee Novelo Elnelviro sits outside the Astrodome in Houston.
This year's graduates prepare for commencement
Christiane Amanpour, CNN's chief
international correspondent, to speak at
the ceremony
By Leah Graboski
Daily Staff Reporter
On Saturday, April 29 at 9:15 a.m., thousands of
seniors will make their final trip to Michigan Stadium
as undergraduates of the University. Christiane Aman-
pour, CNN's chief international correspondent, will be
speaking at the commencement.
Amanpour is affiliated with the University through
the Knight-Wallace Journalism Fellows program. This
program permits mid-career journalists to pursue media
studies at the University for a year.
Amanpour will not be the only one recognized for
attending the University mid-career.
Among those awarded a teaching certificate will be
Mark Pontoni, who never expected to be a member of
the Class of 2006.
When he first came to the University in 1973 after
graduating from Walled Lake Central High School,
Pontoni thought he'd earn his undergraduate degree four
years later.
Pontoni has had three stints at the University.
"(The University) has been a huge part of my life for
a long time," Pontoni said.
Pontoni's first shot at the University didn't go as orig-
inally planned.
One of his major obstacles was a lack of financial
support from his family. On top of that, he found him-
self married and raising three children.
After only two years, Pontoni left the University -
for the first time.
More than five years later, Pontoni and his wife
decided to make the financial sacrifice, allowing him to
return to the University to "make it happen."
In 1984, he graduated with a bachelor's in political
science. In 1988, he earned a master's degree in the
same subject.
With two degrees under his belt, Pontoni decided to
give the business world a try, opening a marketing com-
pany, Merit Marketing Group. After facing economic
difficulties a few years ago, he did what he'd always
wanted to do - come back to the University to earn a
teaching certificate.
"It's not easy to do when you are 50," Pontoni said.
"To all the people out there that are trying to go back
and finish, it is possible."
The campus has changed a great deal since the '70s,
Pontoni said.
One of the most obvious changes, he said, is the pres-
ence of deputized police on campus.
"It's not positive or negative, it's just really different,"
he said.
For Pontoni, students today are more career-oriented.
During his time, Pontoni said, the students he knew
focused first on being good people, and second on their
career aspirations.
Students used to focus more on activities and less on
propelling themselves into jobs, he said. Pontoni was
very involved with Model United Nations as well as
intramural sports.
As a volunteer organizer for an independent club that
brings Model UN to high schools around Michigan, he
has remained involved to this day.
Pontoni is looking to find a teaching job in Michigan,
but recognizes the poor condition of the job market.
"It's a matter of paying student loans back," he said.
Pontoni said he is better able to balance being a stu-
dent and raising a family today because his children are
grown and not as dependent on him as in the past.
One son attends the University of Chicago and
another son, following in his father's footsteps, is fin-
ishing his fourth year at the University's Dearborn
campus. His daughter is taking classes at Washtenaw
Community College, but is considering transferring to
the University.
North Quad back to
drawing board
Coleman named first
female president of'U'
Dissatisfaction with
exterior design delays
project by at least a year
April 10, 2006
By Farayha Arrine
Daily Staff Reporter
Students will have to wait at
least another year for the opening
of North Quad Residence Hall and
Academic Complex, a state-of-the-
art residence hall slated to replace
the Frieze Building. The construc-
tion has been delayed because
University administrators were dis-
satisfied with plans for the build-
ing's exterior.
According to University administra-
tors, the opening of the residence hall
will be pushed back to the fall of 2010.
The setback will not affect the demo-
lition of the Frieze Building, which will
begin this summer as scheduled.
Originally, the University hoped to
start housing students in North Quad in
the fall of 2009, but problems with the
exterior forced administrators to pull
schematic designs from the agenda of
the University Board of Regents meet-
ing last month, when the regents were
slated to approve them.
University President Mary Sue Cole-
the gateway from the north to the Uni-
versity's central campus.
Diane Brown, associate vice presi-
dent for facilities and operations, said
there is a possibility that the architec-
tural firm - Einhorn, Yaffee, Prescott
- that created the design will subcon-
tract another architect to bring a new
perspective to the project.
North Quad is the first new residence
hall the University has built in 35 years.
Both dorm rooms for students and
offices for various departments will be
housed in the new quad in an attempt
to merge academic and residential life.
Other features of the complex include
high-tech video walls, a modern dining
center and study lounges.
But administrators said focusing on
the interior of the building caused the
exterior to be somewhat neglected.
"We were so consumed with the
inside, so excited, that we didn't
have enough time to reflect on the
outside," Coleman said.
When schematic designs of the
new building were released last
month, Timothy Slottow, the Univer-
sity's chief financial officer, began
receiving complaints that the look
was not distinctive enough, Associ-
ate Provost Phil Hanlon said.
Plans for North Quad were first
announced in the fall of 2004. Since
Regents unanimously
elect former president of
University of Iowa to be
13th University president
September 3, 2002
By Karen Schwartz
and Maria Sprow
Daily Staff Reporters
Mary Sue Coleman, former president
of the University of Iowa, was welcomed
to the University by the University
Board of Regents and community mem-
bers May 29 as she was elected to be the
University's 13th president in a motion
carried unanimously by the regents.
Coleman, who had been president of
Iowa since 1995, began her term at the
University of Michigan Aug. 1 under a
five-year contract that was finalized at
the June regents meeting.
"She will be a strong, creative, expe-
rienced, thoughtful and successful pres-
ident of the University of Michigan,"
Regent Rebecca McGowan (D-Ann
Arbor) said. "And let it be said again and
again, girls can do math and science."
Regents also praised interim Univer-
sity President B. Joseph White, express-
ing gratitude and appreciation for his
dedication and involvement in keeping
in May, Coleman remained at Iowa for
the following two months
"I have two responsibilities that I
have to do going forward," she said,
referring to both her position at Iowa
and her need to prepare for her new
role in Ann Arbor.
White remained in charge of the
University until the beginning of
August but said he would confer with
Coleman on any major decisions made
between May and then.
Regent Laurence Deitch (D-Bing-
ham Farms), chair of the Board of
Regents and the Presidential Search
Committee, said he is confident Cole-
man is ready for the job.
"She was quite simply the best of the
best. We think the University and the
community will benefit from her lead-
ership," he said. "As an administrator,
she's smart and she's tough and she
knows how big places like this run."
He added that Coleman is well-
known in higher education circles and
that her name is on "everybody's short
list of leaders of higher education."
Deitch cited Coleman's achieve-
ments and credentials as part of
what made her an appealing candi-
date, commenting on the breadth of
her experiences and involvement in
research and a variety of other areas.
"We believe she will prove to be
o~ne o~fthe cgrea~t leadersof the Un i-
FILE PHOTO
Incoming University President Mary Sue Coleman speaks after being
welcomed by the University's regents.
It was "a truly extraordinary com-
mitment by 16 people with very busy
lives," Deitch said.
The University community at large
had a chance to be part of the process
as well, as 25 meetings were held to
give the community a chance to voice
opinions and hopes for the next Uni-
versity leader.
"The election of the next presi-
dent mattered to everyone - everyone
cared. It reaffirmed our commit-
ment," said Rackham Dean Earl
Lewis, chair of the Presidential
Search Advisory Committee.
L ewis said over 200 neonle were
who were qualified to lead the Univer-
sity in many different ways.
Coleman said that if it had been an
open search she would not have con-
sidered candidacy. She is not the only
one who would have refused candi-
dacy, Lewis said.
Lewis said the openness in Har-
vard's recent presidential search did not
seem to harm former University Presi-
dent Lee Bollinger, whom Coleman is
replacing. Bollinger was announced
last year to be a finalist and then lost to
former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Lawrence Summers, he believes Bol-
linL~er is the exception to tihe ruile.
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